Federal judge blocks Trump order limiting asylum

barriers with concrete and concertina wire.Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said the measures were put in place after officials “were notified that a large number of caravan migrants were planning to rush the border in an attempt to gain illegal access to the U.S.”

She further accused some of the migrants of “purposely causing disruptions at our border points of entry.”

“There is a legal and illegal way to enter the U.S. We have deployed additional forces to protect our border. We will enforce all our laws,” she said.

Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Katie Waldman and Department of Justice spokesman Steven Stafford said in a joint statement Tuesday the U.S. asylum system is bombarded with “tens of thousands of meritless claims every year.”

“As the Supreme Court affirmed this summer, Congress has given the President broad authority to limit or even stop the entry of aliens into this country.” The statement went onto say, ” … it is absurd that a set of advocacy groups can be found to have standing to sue to stop the entire federal government from acting so that illegal aliens can receive a government benefit to which they are not entitled.”

Pueblo Sin Fronteras, a group that has been assisting the migrants, rejected Nielsen’s statements and said the lane closures were aimed at stoking “fury and impatience” by blocking U.S. citizens who had to wait to gain entry from Tijuana.

“Sec. Nielsen’s false comments about the Refugee Exodus are a deliberate attempt to mislead the public and demonize refugees fleeing government sponsored violence and displacement,” the group said.

There have been protests by hundreds of people in Tijuana who directed chants of “get out” and “go home” at the migrants.

Tijuana Mayor Juan Manuel Gastelum is among those taking a hard stance. He posted Monday on Twitter, “Human rights come with human duties,” and that migrants who do not respect citizens of Tijuana can expect to face the full weight of the law.

That echoes statements by Trump, who has called the Central Americans “criminals” and cast the caravans as an “invasion.”

Trump tweeted Sunday that the United States is “ill-prepared for this invasion and will not stand for it. They are causing crime and big problems in Mexico. Go home.”

But many of the migrants are puzzled by fears they are violent and criminals, saying they fled Honduras in hopes of asylum in the United States to escape violence and gangs.

Al Otro Lado, one of the groups that joined in filing the lawsuit against Trump’s asylum proclamation, said the only ones protesting the migrants in Tijuana “are the anti-immigrant crowd, some of whom came down from the U.S.”

The group said the migrants have been “waiting patiently” as they join the established line for who will get to seek asylum next.

“The exodus is not a security risk. It is a humanitarian crisis. We need food, blankets, diapers, etc., not border closures and barbed wire,” it wrote on Twitter.

This article is published courtesy of the Voice of America (VOA